Ladd's goal gives Blackhawks OT win

CHICAGO(AP) -- Andrew Ladd had perfect position. When the puck
came flying off teammate Dave Bolland's stick from far away,
Ladd was right in front of Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo to
tip it in.

Ladd's goal less than 3 minutes into overtime Thursday night
capped a remarkable 2-1 comeback victory for the Chicago
Blackhawks and tied the Western Conference semifinal series at
2.

"Bolland has great patience with the puck," Ladd said. "He
turned around, saw my stick and got it to the right spot. We've
got a little momentum here and can take it back to Vancouver."

Game 5 is Saturday night in Vancouver and the Canucks will have
to regroup after losing a game they apparently had sealed up.
Chicago's Martin Havlat tied it at 1 with 2:44 left in
regulation after Luongo had been unflappable most of the night.

"We were a couple of minutes away from winning this game,"
Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. "It happened. We've got to
deal with it and get ready for the next game."

After the Canucks had two point-blank shots to score, but were
turned away by Nikolai Khabibulin, Bolland chased down the puck
along the boards at the other end. He fired a shot from beyond
the right circle and Ladd knocked it in at 2:52 of overtime.

"It was a shot from the half wall. Ladd was right in front of
me," said Luongo, who finished with 26 saves. "It was coming
fast from the outside of the net. I extended my leg and he
tipped it in the five-hole, so it was a good play by him."

Havlat's tying goal came on a wrist shot from between the
circles after Ladd had worked the puck free from the boards and
shoveled it in his direction.

"I had 1-on-1 against the goalie and Ladd gave me a great pass.
I had a lot of time and I haven't had that in this series,"
Havlat said. "We kept fighting until the last second and it paid
off. We were patient."

In the closing seconds of regulation, Bolland had a breakaway
before Vancouver's Alexander Edler caught up to him, hit his
stick from behind and then forced him away from the net. Bolland
went down on the play and the crowd at the United Center
screamed for a penalty with 8.2 seconds to go.

Darcy Hordichuk took a pass from a spinning Rick Rypien to score
his first playoff goal midway through the second period to put
the Canucks up 1-0 - the fourth straight game Vancouver opened
the scoring.

And Luongo again appeared too tough for the Blackhawks to crack.
After allowing eight goals in the two games at Vancouver, Luongo
gave up just one in Game 3 and looked on his way to a shutout
before Havlat tied it.

"A huge comeback for us. We're right back in the series now,"
Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "It looked grim, but the
enthusiasm was in the right places."

After Chicago's Jonathan Toews had his shot blocked, Rypien
scooped up the puck and raced to the other end against
Blackhawks defenseman Matt Walker. Just before reaching the
circles, Rypien made his nifty spin move to evade Walker and
then passed to Hordichuk, who beat Khabibulin on the stick side
for the 1-0 lead.

The score came shortly after Luongo made a spectacular stop on a
rebound attempt by Chicago's Troy Brouwer. After the Canucks
went ahead and with each team down a man, Luongo made a
sprawling pad save to deny Patrick Sharp.

Chicago came out with strong early rush and Luongo had five
saves in the first 6 minutes, including another nice pad stop of
Toews' point-blank attempt just as a power play was expiring.

The Blackhawks mustered an 8-4 shots-on-goal advantage but were
blanked in the opening period for the fourth straight game.

Khabibulin finished with 14 saves.

Notes: Canucks D Sami Salo, who rejoined the team Tuesday
night after being injured in Game 2, did not play for a second
straight game. ... Baseball Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk
participated in a goal shooting contest between the second and
third periods. ... NBA rookie of the year Derrick Rose of the
Bulls dropped the ceremonial first puck.

149roots

PLAYOFFSNHL VANCOUVER AT CHICAGONOTE: THE GOAL SCORED BY CHICAGO AT 2:52 OF OVERTIME WASORIGINALLY CREDITED TO DAVE BOLLAND. IT HAS BEEN CHANGED TO ANDREW LADD.